Hi Girls - Back from Cyprus and I've maintained!

Just to let you know we had a lovely fortnight in Cyprus and soaked up the sunshine and culture.

I wined and dined every night, lovely romantic evenings by the sea with my beloved and with a little trepidation I stepped on the scales and I have maintained.

My husband reckons I look slimmer, that's probably because we walked a lot, so my hips and thighs look slimmer. I'm a bit tempted to show a photo, I'm quite shy about that, and I'm not too sure how to put them on the site, the thing is I have no pics of when I was very heavy. I was very camera shy then.

The great thing is that I achieved what I set out to do, have a nice time, eat what I wanted to and maintain my weight. I'm happily sole sourcing again and when the Doc sees what my spell away has done I think he'll be rather pleased. He told me I would put weight on, that I'd restore glycogen and fat. I took that as a challenge and I'm delighted to have proved him wrong and I think he will be glad he was wrong too, because all he wants is success for me too.

I just want to share this with you. We stayed at a hotel where, in all honesty I have never seen so many obese people. The quantities of food that were eaten at breakfast by these guests was beyond belief. I just kept thinking, you really don't need all that and wondering how they could manage to tuck it all away. Full English with chips + a continental but 4 croissants mind, then fruit and yoghurt and cereal. One may say they were stoking up the fires for the day, but I'm inclined not to give them the benefit of the doubt, because there was a great queue outside "Fat Mamas" restaurant every night, again with very large folk waiting to gain entry. I was puzzled at the attraction of this place, it was on a busy main road. Then I glanced the size of the portions. Mount Everest on a plate.

Seeing all this food being eaten just made my resolve so strong, because as any Lipotrimmer will know, you can live quite happily and healthily on your 420 calories. The weight isn't dropping off me.

So, I hope to hear from you and let me know how you are all getting on.

Lovely to hear from another member. It is very commendable that you no longer want the "large plate". Food is a pleasure, and it should be enjoyed, I love good food and am a great fan of Nigella who is a super cook. I know that you can have delicious food and wine and stay slim.

I guess most of the big people I saw when I was away would say that they are happy with their size and dont see anything unusual with the big meals they consume.

However, if a fairy godmother was to say that with a wave of a wand they could have the figure of their dreams, what would they really say?

I realise now that I put my weight on because I was consuming more carbohydrate than my body needed. To maintain my weight I need to keep to a regime of 1200 - 1500 calories. This is what dieters usually lose weight on. I started to gain weight when I started driving around instead of walking everywhere. Everyone is different and this is the only diet that has made my body really release its fat. I could have carried on losing weight on my 850 calories and exercising like an athlete when I felt fit for it, I'm 47, but it was a slow process.

I saw a programme last night about a teenager who was only 19 years old and weighed 30 stones. She had a stomach operation and started losing weight and it was so heartwarming to see such a young girl, and she was very sweet natured, feel confident and happy to wear a dress and her Mum who had never seen her slim and who was worried for her daughter's life looking happy that her daughter was losing weight. I don't know how she put the weight on or any history, I just started watching it later on.

Then there was another programme about an 8 year old boy who consumes 8000 calories a day. Now how was he able to do that? What was his Mother thinking of? I didn't watch it all.

Anyway more power to you, I suppose food can be an addiction like drink and drugs to some and addictions can be overcome.

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